What To Feed Staffy Pup

[toddstaff]

gday

first time poster so please be gentle

i pick up my blue fawn Staffordshire bull terrier in 3 weeks.

picy of my baby below

i would like to know what to feed for best health

the breeder has told me he will be weened onto chicken mince and rice.

is this enough as in is this adequate for protiens and nutrience

just want some advice

cheers

todd crowe

Edited August 4, 2008 by toddstaff

[Dogsfevr]

Ask your breeder to email you there full diet sheet & then if you want to change things discuss with your breeder what they think & any breed specific intolerances or big NO NO,s

[poodlefan]

Rice is a cereal. It has little nutritional value for dogs beyond being a readily accessed source of carbohydrates.

Unless the chicken mince has bone in it, this diet would be amost devoid of calcium.. a disaster for a growing pup.

If this is all the breeder proposes to feed the pup, it is not a very good diet IMO and could lead to major nutritional deficiency.

Either feed a premium puppy food (not something you are likely to find in a supermarket), perhaps with chicken wings or similar added OR a carefully researched raw diet or maybe a mix of both.

You might discuss your pup's diet at its first vet check but most vets will almost automatically recommend the food they sell.

Edited August 4, 2008 by poodlefan

[LoremIpsum]

What a gorgeous little bundle! What are you going to call him?

I feed my lab Orijen puppy food and think it's excellent. You'll find a lot of Orijen fans around here.

There's a good website — www.dogfoodanalysis.com — which gives dog foods a star rating. The best thing I learned was to look at all the ingredients up until the first fat. These are the main ingredients. Then look at the meats, grains and vegies. Look for named meat products rather than generic terms. Check out how many grains there are. Your first ingredient may be meat, but if the next three are grains then there's probably more grains than meat, and as Poodlefan points out, dogs don't really need grains. Avoid corn particularly.

Good luck! Keep us informed.

[poodlefan]

Blue coloured dogs may be prone to skin issues. I'd definitely be careful about feeding wheat or corn (two very common food allergens) to your pup Todd.

[toddstaff]

i dont really know what to call him yet, my last dog was diesel and this one i am thinking LUXY. as in hilux

i am a toyota mechanic by trade and have named all my animals after performance brands and cars.

what does anyone think of eukanuba medium breed puppy, thats what the vet recomended this afternoon when i dropped in

where do you buy orijen from i have never heard of it before

the vet also suggested good quality mince with a powder calcium additive.

cheers again

[poodlefan]

Todd:

the vet also suggested good quality mince with a powder calcium additive

.

Crikey, that's dark ages thinking. Most decent vets and breeder will tell you NEVER to add calcium to a pup's diet.

Feeding calcium without the right balance of phosphorus can lead to serious issues, as can too much calcium. Luckily, nature has seen fit to provide us with just the right cal/phos mix... in edible bone.

If you want to feed mince (which does not a lot for a pup's teeth and give little chewing exercise) feed chicken pet mince with bone in it. Otherwise feed chicken necks, wings and, as puppy grows, carcasses, lamp ribs etc. Even my toy poodle wolfs those down without any problem.

[valby]

<< Blue Fawns are awesome ;)

I feed Halston Orijen puppy (just started this) along with sardines, chicken necks, roo mince.

He has a sensitive tummy so anything else makes him a smelly bum

[StaceyB]

Most puppy dry food will have extra calcium (and all the other extras growing pups need). Bully breeds can be more prone to skin irritations and contact allergies. My girl gets really itchy and a rash during summer when the grass is really dry, but I find that Advance biscuits help with the symptoms.

I also feed minced chicken carcass, sardines and a nice big bone once or twice a week.

Keep in mind also, that all dogs are different and some foods may be really good for one dog, but not so great for another. I found it was mostly trial & error with Gypsy to find a food that she liked and did well with.

Another DOLer (can't remember who, sorry) said in a post ages ago, "The best food for your dog is the food your dog does the best on"

[SoL]

To be honest I would stay away from a completely raw diet at this stage - chicken mince, though providing a higher fat content, would lack quite a few other essentials, and rice doesn't have that much value other than a filler to fight appetite.

Is this all that the pup will be weaned onto? Or is there something else in there as well?

Secondly, to the thought of supplementing at this early stage, I would suggest that a really good dry puppy food will not need supplementing.

Personally (and the more you ask around the more answers you will get to the 'which food' question) I like Advance, especially Rehydratable for puppies and all of my puppies have been weaned on this as well as quality mince and all have done extremely well in terms of weight and energy. You can also look at adding natural yogurt to the pup's food to assist gut flora do its job. Whichever food you decide on, do it slowly over at least a week to avoid the risk of tummy upset.

Good luck and have fun.

[toddstaff]

valby - i know there awsome i set out to buy a blue as this is what my previous staff was but saw him and couldnt resist that colour and that cute little face.

emmark - thats what she said he would be weaned onto but i will check when i visit him this weekend(she said i could visit him as often as i want until he is ready to go, already been there 5 times in a week)

where do you buy advance from and roughly how much per kilo and same with orijen

thanx guys youve been a good help so far

[Crysti_Lei]

i have a customer come into work with the same question the other day, his breeder had told him to feed scrambled eggs and oats! i wasn't in uniform (was in on my day off, shopping) so i laughed out loud as he said it to one of the other girls, she then promptly told him o worked there and handed the customer to me... LOL oops.

[toddstaff]

quick update

sorry for not replying and giving info before this

i kept going with the eukanuba as this is what i had started on and still had a bit of and put in a little bit of warm water to soften the biscuits a bit and a little (1/2 teaspoon) of corn flour and saw a result in a day or 3 meals and so far so good

i got rid of the cornflowerafter about 4 days later and now he is at 10 weeks now and at 9 weeks i stopped the water and he is eating dry eukanuba.

so thank you to everyone who posted replies and helped me out.

a pic to show him off at 9 weeks

Edited September 8, 2008 by toddstaff

[Clyde]

Aww, he is very cute. Nothing like a sleeping Staff puppy

You could always try him on some chicken necks aswell, just make sure you supervise him eating them. :p

[LittleRock]

With my pup (Staffordshire Bull Terrier) l initally carried over the meals the breeder was feeding him ie: chicken mince, pasta, cheese and chicken necks. But l also added a dog food (dry food). I went for a very good brand as the nutrients was measured and l knew exactly what he was getting, especially what he would miss from the chicken mince etc. This dry food (puppy food Purina Pro Plan - Lge puppy food) he is still on to this day. As he gets older l will ween him off the puppy mix. Once l had to change his food when his puppy canines where removed, but his tummy didn't like the change, nor did it like the tin food. All l can say is look into the food you choose and make sure that it has as few perservatives as possible. he has thrived on Pro Plan and is steadily growing and putting on weight (a healthy weight of course).

Edited September 9, 2008 by kittycatt